Water quality monitoring with emphasis on estimation of point and diffuse pollution sources

Abstract

Population growth, urbanization and anthropogenic activities are becoming a serious problem for water resources in Turkey, which necessitates their monitoring and maintenance of water quality. In this study, water quality was implemented in the Porsuk Stream in Inner Anatolia, Turkey. Water samples were collected at monthly intervals between the period of 2008-2010 at four selected stations. Twenty one water quality parameters were measured which are water temperature (T), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), electrical conductivity (EC), salinity, turbidity, chloride, suspended solids, dissolved solids, organic nitrogen (Org-N), ammonium nitrogen (NH3-N), nitrite nitrogen (NO2-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), total organic carbon, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total coliform, alkalinity, orthophosphate phosphorus (PO43--P), total phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. The monitoring was conducted to see how the water quality changed along the stream in response to various anthropogenic activities. Besides, a paired t-test was utilized to determine the concentration differences at stations above and below the single most important point source of pollutants (Eskisehir city). Moreover, a regression model was used to establish relations between water quality parameters and flow and to estimate nonpoint source loadings.